TWD—All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie

Sure seems that the weeks are just flying by!

We (finally) got some pumpkins and did some carving the other night.  Always a fun time at our house.

I just realized that it looks like Taylor has a sharp knife and is stabbing his pumpkin.  That’s just a big scooping spoon.

Not pictured with his pumpkin—Parker.  Not sure what happened there.  We are pretty much ready for Halloween here.  Taylor—policeman, Parker—Ash from Pokemon, Scott—he’s 12, he wants candy, but doesn’t want to wear a costume.  When I keep asking Sam what he wants to be for Halloween, he always says, “Just a treater with a bucket.”  Too funny.  So in Facebook chatting with Suzanne recently and telling her how Sam keeps saying that she had a great suggestion.  Just get Sam a shirt and put “treater” on it and get one for Scott that says “tricker”.  I think that’s a great idea!  Bring on the trick or treatin’!

And now for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie.  Emily, keeper of the blog, Sandmuffin chose our recipe this week (she’ll have the recipe on her blog).  She chose All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie.  I really like apple pie.  Surprisingly, as much as I LOVE chocolate, so you’d think some kind of chocolate pie would be my favorite, I think my favorite might be apple.  Might be.  I like cherry, too.  And….well, okay, I like pie.  Well, not really mince meat pie, but most others. 

Once again I followed the recipe exactly.  I know, I’m crazy like that, sometimes I do what I’m told and other times, I do what I want. ;)

Crust, went off without a hitch.  Apples, too, really.  Though I was a little confused about something.  The recipe says 4 pounds (about 6 very large) apples.  Before they’re peeled and cored?  Or after they are sliced and ready to go?  I prepared eight good sized Golden Delicious apples and it was just over 2 pounds of apples.  That was all the apples I had and it seemed like plenty, so I went with it.

I baked the pie for just the amount of time the recipe says.  Fifteen minutes at 425 degrees, then 50 minutes at 375 degrees.  I was happy to see that my pie looked almost exactly like the picture in the book.  (Except I crimped the edges of the crust differently and the top of the pie had my always signature cut out of an apple (I always make a little cut out of whatever kind of pie it is). 

(Sorry it’s such a yellow photo.)

I made the pie on Sunday along with the upcoming FFWD apple cake AND a delicious bundt cake (coming soon!).  Since we had such a spread of desserts, we invited some family over Sunday night to eat the goodies with us.  Upon serving it, the pie was still quite warm, so it was hard to get really nice slices.

I think the pie was pretty good.  I would use this recipe again, but make a couple minor changes.  Zest of one lemon was WAY too much, the apples had a very strong lemon taste, which I thought was a bit much.  I also thought it could have used more cinnamon.  So next time—less lemon, like maybe only 1/2 teaspoon or so and more cinnamon.  Everyone liked it and they didn’t think it was too lemony, so maybe it’s just me.  Served with some whipped cream on top. 

Good pie.  Perfect fall pick, Emily.  Thanks.  All three of the desserts I made were a big hit.  You’ll hear about the others soon!